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Lam Khoa (LK)

Dr. Timothy Roden

MUS 348: Music of the 18th and 19th Centuries

October 22, 2014

Dufay’s Nuper Rosarum Flores: A Relationship of Music, Theology, and Architecture

Guillaume Dufay’s Nuper rosarum flores is an isorhythmic motet written in 1436 to

glorify the completion of the Cathedral of Florence’s dome. A motet refers to a polyphonic genre

of music in the medieval era. An isorhythm refers to a structure consisting of two repeating

patterns: a rhythm sequence (talea) and a pitch sequence (color). A numerical plan which

consists of the proportion of 6:4:2:3 and the set of numbers two, four, and seven interweaves

with this structural plan of the music. In this motet, Dufay explores the interrelationship between

music, theology, and architecture through his innovative incorporation of numerology,

construction of form and phrase structures, and the use of harmony and text.

Dufay’s use of numerology highlights the combination of all three aspects. Although

many other French composers had explored numerology to construct forms and phrase structures

of the motet (Phillipe de Vitry’s Garrit Gallus/In nova fert/Neuma being a prime example), the

numbers could not be exploited to their full potential until the coming of Dufay. In this motet,

two sets of number pattern exist: the proportion of 6:4:2:3 and the set of two, four, and seven.

The proportion appears in the duration of the talea in the tenor voices: six half notes as the

number of beats in each measure of the first talea, four half notes in the second talea, two half

notes in the third talea, and three half notes in the last talea. The second set of numbers appears

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most fundamentally in the text: the poem consists of four stanzas, with seven lines in each,

stanza except the last line “Amen”, with seven syllables in each line. Symbolism of number four

also occurs in the use of four voices and the four times the talea/color pattern repeats. The

propagations of these numbers reveal how Dufay constructs the form of each talea/color pattern:

7 × 4 = 28, which corresponds to the number of measures in a talea/color pattern and the number

of lines of the poem; 7 × 2 = 14, which corresponds to how Dufay divided each talea: fourteen

measures of rests followed by fourteen measures of the music in the tenor voices.

Unlike de Vitry’s Garrit Gallus, whose numbers do not uphold any sacred or secular

meaning, these numbers employed by Dufay had particular theological and architectural origins.

Where these numbers came from became a heated topic for generations of musicologists of

medieval music. Two theorists, Craig Wright and Marvin Trachtenberg, both relate the

proportion 6:4:2:3 to architectural dimensions, but of different buildings. Wright refutes Charles

Warren’s (a predecessor) flawed method in measuring and attempt in relating the proportion to

the dimensions of the Cathedral of Florence1. Wright concludes the proportion originated from

the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon from a biblical passage: a rectangular base of sixty by

twenty cubits and a height of thirty cubits, in which the longer side of the base consists of a

forty-cubit nave and twenty-cubit sanctuary.2 Wright thereby relates Dufay’s inspiration for the

composition to the vision of the Solomonic Temple and the second set of numbers (two, four,

and seven) to the image of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of the Cathedral of Florence (seven

1Craig Wright, “Dufay’s Nuper Rosarum Flores, King Solomon’s Temple, and the Veneration of

the Virgin,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 47 (1994), 401. http://0-

www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/3128798

2Craig Wright, “Dufay’s Nuper,” Jour. Amer. Mus. Soc., 406.

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sorrows, seven joys, seven acts of mercy, seven virginal companions, seven years of exile in

Egypt, seven feasts).3 Trachtenberg did not refute this perspective and agreed upon this

numerical allusion.4 His argument, however, added a deeper and more complex understanding of

these numbers. The proportion, according to Trachtenberg, relates not directly to the dimensions

of the Cathedral of Florence but indirectly as the factors of these dimensions: 6 × 4 = 24 braccia,

which matches the length of an octagonal side of the dome; 6 × 4 × 3 = 72 braccia, which

matches the height of the nave and the distance from a side of the octagonal dome to an opposite

side; 6 × 4 × 3 × 2 = 144 braccia, corresponding to the height of the dome, the length of the nave,

and the height of the Celestial Jerusalem’s walls, which closely relates to those of the Solomonic

Temple.5 Trachtenberg also criticizes Wright’s failed attempt in recognizing Dufay’s reference of

the Cathedral of Florence as the temple in the poem, and further strengthens his reason for using

the cathedral instead of the Temple of Solomon.6 The Cathedral’s base, as Trachtenberg pointed

out, shares a common proportionality with the Solomonic Temple’s: both of the architectures

contain a nave to sanctuary ratio of 2:1 in length, and a rectangular base of the nave with a longer

side to shorter side ratio of 2:1.7 These arguments do not oppose, but rather complement and

refine Wright’s perspective on the numerology which thereby exemplifies the interconnectedness

of music, theology, and architecture.

3Craig Wright, “Dufay’s Nuper,” Jour. Amer. Mus. Soc., 438.

4Marvin Trachtenberg, “Architecture and Music Reunited: A New Reading of Dufay’s Nuper

Rosarum Flores and the Cathedral of Florence,” Renaissance Quarterly 54 (2001), 770.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261923?origin=JSTOR-pdf&

5Marvin Trachtenberg, “Architecture and,” Ren. Quar., 753.

6Marvin Trachtenberg, “Architecture and,” Ren. Quar., 747.

7Marvin Trachtenberg, “Architecture and,” Ren. Quar., 769.

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The music and architecture relationship can also be reflected through the form and the

phrase structures of the composition. Dufay uses a talea pattern superimposed on a color pattern

with a ratio of 1:1. This color/talea pattern repeated four times changes rhythmically each time

this pattern appears; the value of the beat in each pattern changes accordingly to the proportion

of the numerical plan. This isorhythm occurs in the tenor voices carrying the same color pattern

of a cantus firmus with the tenor I being a P5 lower than the tenor II, which seemingly do not

relate to each other. A cantus firmus refers to a chant melody (the Terribilis est locus iste in this

motet) being used as the basis of a polyphonic composition. These tenor voices move parallel to

each other in the style of parallel organum of the tenth century, but their talea patterns do not

synchronize rhythmically, which obscures their relationship. In parallel organum, the vox

principalis (principal voice) sings the cantus firmus while the vox organalis (organum voice)

sings the melody in a perfect interval (P4, P5, or P8) above or below the cantus firmus. This

innovative parallel organum can be compared to the parallel inner dome and outer dome

structure of the Cathedral of Florence, which additionally reinforces Dufay’s relationship of two

tenor voices (instead of a tenor and a contratenor). Dufay also obscures the isorhythmic plan by

using long phrases of constant note values in the motetus and triplum. This isorhythm creates

moments of isomelic passages which do not result from the proportion 6:4:2:3 in the upper

voices (mm. 34, 90, 129, 157). Isomelic phrases refer to phrases which contain same/similar

pitch contour, but with different rhythms. These isomelic passages in the motetus and triplum

reflect the proportionality of the Temple of Solomon and the Cathedral of Florence, an argument

presented by Trachtenberg. These phrases have a fundamentally the same core (the base of the

buildings and the pitch contour of the melody) but in different proportions (the dimensions of the

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buildings and the rhythm of the melody). These formal structures, the isorhythm and isomelic

passages, form a strong bond between the music and the architectures associated with this motet.

Dufay’s treatment of perfect harmony and use of text signifies the relationship between

the music and theology. Dufay employs both triadic intervals (M3/m3 and M6/m6) and perfect

intervals (P4, P5, and P8) but in different ways. This motet signifies a significant use of triadic

intervals, although these intervals only appear internally within a phrase (mm. 3-27, 141-154)

while the perfect intervals occur at more important moments: voice entrances (mm. 1, 29, 33)

and all cadences (m. 55, 112, 140, 168, 170). The last cadence (m. 170) on the word “Amen”

although hints at a full triad on G with the tenor holding B3 (the 3^ of the chord), the tenor

immediately brings the B3 to a D4 (the 5^ of the chord), forming a P5 with the tenor II and P4

with the triplum. The medieval mind considers these intervals (P4, P5, and P8) to be of the

utmost aesthetic value because of their Pythagoras ratio of low numbers (4:3, 3:2, and 2:1

respectively). This use of perfect intervals at the last cadence highlights not only the end of the

composition but also the text: glorifying the word “Amen” by resolving the triad into the bare

P5. Dufay also uses text to strengthen this relationship of theology and music. Emergent uses of

word painting (using music to illustrate text) appear in the music: the word “Successor” being

portrayed as an imitation (repetitions of music in different voices) between the triplum and

motetus (mm. 44-46), followed by a homophonic texture (two or more voices moving together in

harmony and creating chords) in the three upper voices to highlight his patron, Pope Eugenius IV

(mm. 46-48). This highlighting of the Pope’s name signifies a theological importance expressed

through the music, and thereby exemplifies the role of the church in the medieval era. Dufay’s

musical setting of the text, however, does not fully focus on religious text. Phrase structures of

the motetus and triplum do not follow the stanzas of text because of the imposition of phrase

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structure to accommodate the proportion 6:4:2:3, splitting the lines within a stanza as the

talea/color pattern repeats. The second pattern starts with the last line of the second stanza, third

pattern with the first line of the last stanza, and fourth pattern with the fourth line of the last

stanza. This lack of text focus reflected in the phrase structures causes disruptions in the flow of

the poem when sung from a talea/color pattern to another thereby slightly weakening the bond

between theology and music.

The interrelationship between music, architecture, and theology, or a combination of all

three exists in the composition through Dufay’s use of musical elements: numerology, form,

phrase structures, harmony, and text. The isorhythmic motet through this complex construction

thereby acts a precursor and inspiration not only to the emerging Renaissance music but also to

the music of the later centuries.

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Bibliography

Wright, Craig. “Dufay’s Nuper Rosarum Flores, King Solomon’s Temple, and the Veneration of

the Virgin.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 47 (1994): 395-441. http://0-

www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/3128798

Trachtenberg, Marvin. “Architecture and Music Reunited: A New Reading of Dufay’s Nuper

Rosarum Flores and the Cathedral of Florence.” Renaissance Quarterly 54 (2001): 740-

775. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261923?origin=JSTOR-pdf&